My Indepth Log And Accutane Blog

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A sunny Saturday afternoon, so like most im hiding from the sun - Can always go whack some sunscreen on and go down the park, but thought Id share some of my experiences and thoughts on acne, cystic acne, blind pimples, healthy eating and the eventual move to accutane.

Apologies in advance for this post, It may be abit jumbled and all over the shop, I've never been a great story teller, heheheh - but I do hope someone somewhere can take something from this.

Ok. I am a 24 yo male living in sunny Australia with a love of basketball, sports, nutrition and general OCD types of tendencacies when it comes to what I put into my body. So keep this in mind as you read my story. Ive also become a serial google lord - constantly searching skin symptoms over the years and reading absolutely everything from topical reviews, to drug reviews, to home DIY remedies, to relaxing techniques - pretty much every facet that effects adult acne I had looked into and given a try or educated guess.

Since about 16 years of age I have had regular pimples - just white heads & black heads, which like most are on the slightly annoying side, because who wants some little sore on their face. Up until 21 years of age I would have classed my acne condition as fairly low in severity and mind you until the age of 21 I would eat a tonne of junk food and rubbish all the time, living that University lifestyle. From 21 I became overly interested in health and nutrition, mainly to compliment my sporting interests and it helps having parents who really love holistic approaches to medicines and foods and all that jazz. So it was inevitable that Id get a kick out of cauliflower too.

Ill jump right into it now I promise. At 22 in absolute peak fitness doing an hour of excercise almost every night (no im not your standard lift weights, binge on high carb people - more into endurance running and stamina) and eating a perfect balanced diet to compliment my regime - that very mild acne of maybe a pimple to two pimples a weak; turned into cystic acne.

I remember the first few experiences with cystic acne - I was think 'wow this is super exciting - going to be fun popping this bad boy'. And then soon enough you realise hes bunkered down for awhile and hes not moving for no body. So on came the google searching as these started to sprout up maybe once a month in the beginning (how lucky really). And I would be there squeezing and pin pricking and rubbing alcohol to stop it from oozing (yuck). To be honest that continued for a long while, its not until I started noticing hyperpigmentation from the area that I wondered if im going about this wrong.

Anyway fast forward a year and my acne still wasnt a massive mental issue for me, just spot treat areas with some over-counter topicals and heal with epiderm (just some chemist healing cream). Over the next 6 months however I could see a change in my acne, it became more angry, and inflammed with a closer window between these cycstic / blind pimples forming. So it started to bug me.

Like most google spread the answers and sometimes the complete rubbish. Often found myself reading links posted here 70% of the time.

Like most I thought, 'Wow, this is getting a little beyond Benzoyl Peroxide spot treatment - I think I'll get an acne kit and all my problems will be solved'. I went down the root of 'Exposed Skin Care' and I must say for the first 1 month I saw great results - to the point where I actually posted on their facebook wall saying how impressed I was - and like most I ordered another full kit so I could be stocked up for a few months in advance. Now I dont want to slander the brand, but for me and many others when I dug much much deeper in reviews the product has its initial break out period (which i got in 2nd week), then clear skin (my 1 month mark), then unfortunately it all got a whole lot worse (6 weeks). Bright red, raw skin, pimples coming up from all over my chin and T zone - was a real bummer for me and truth be told this is the point when I really became OCD about acne, because It was my first every Acne rollercoaster, that awesome feeling when you think its finally over and boom it comes back for round 2 much worse than before.

From this point acne was my number one priority and mission in life, it completely up until now as I am writing this has consumed atleast 98% of my time mentally and physically. Its easy to say imperfections are only skin deep, or your more than your skin and yes its so so true, but for many of us here - its something that we put so much effort into and see no results. Especially if your a sporting person, you'd assume working out will improve your fitness and you would be right, acne for me anyway was just the opposite.

Over the Christmas break this year things just went out of control, my already extremely healthy lifestyle went into Nazi Germany regimes - I had cut out every single type of acne causing foods; dairy, grains, wheat, sugars, processed whites, certain nuts, certain meats, certain fruits even, flours. And began eating only foods that no one had ever broken out from - which I found was very close to the Paleo diet.

In this period I even stopped competitive sport to reduce stress and reduce clogging of pores from sweat for a good 3 months, which proved to help in no way at all. I was at a point where everything in my life was solely about acne combat and it had begun to really affect my social life, not going out during the day (besides work), only seeing people when it was dark and staying away from lit up places. Sounds very silly thinking about it, but It is just how my brain deals with the situation.

So I went to my GP after 6 months losing myself to acne - and was prescribed EPIDUO. now I used the product exactly right for a month - yes skin went bright red and I looked pretty burnt alot of the time. I do believe this product works very well for mild to moderate acne like whiteheads and blackheads - but if you have cystic type or get blind pimples, im sorry to say, but you may struggle to see results with this topical and really should be using it in conjunction with an antibiotic.

So back to the local GP I went to discuss the situation and I was prescribed 100mg a day of Doxycycline to take in addition to the Epiduo. Now I finally felt some hope getting a tetracycline drug to help with my situation as my acne was far deeper than any topical ointment could reach. Again I had the inital break-out in the first few weeks and a month in I still hadnt really seen any improvements.

But I continued and along with the medication I took my vitamins and probiotics to try assist my liver and body in dealing with this 5 month script of antibiotics in the system.

Anywho on day 45 of the doxycycline, I was speaking to my mum about how insane my life has become, with the strict foods and the 10 times a day standing by the mirror sloshing products on or maintaining moisture in drained cysts and it was a utter nightmare for me. She said I really should grab a referal from my GP for a dermatologist near my house, just to get some further assistance from an expert.

Which brings me to current day - So on day 60 of doxycycline and apologies if this sounds a little confusing, as I am still slightly coming to terms with the situation, but in the 60 days on doxycycline i didnt see results, but I had read people saying at about the 2 month mark their skin became clear from acne. Now in the last week my skin went from having the worst blind pimple of my life, to a calmness, which in the past lasts for maybe a week every month if im lucky where my skin has no painful lesions or pimples forming, just dormant areas or red scars. Maybe this is the Doxy starting to work or maybe it is that same acne rollercoaster just doing its thing. So I went into the dermatologist today and told him suprisingly and by coincidence that my acne isnt aggressive at the moment, and I began to tell him my story.

Below is what I printed off to show him to give him an understanding and I am happy to share with you all too:

So, He took a look at it all and said - I can tell this is controlling your life and the amount of strain and pressure you are putting on yourself and your diet is something that will just make you go insane. It got to a point where he said to me, the Doxy is very good for moderate acne, and while yours is moderate you do get those larger more deeper acne which im afraid in my experience isnt really affected by the doxycycline. I sort of felt a little shattered when he said this, and a part of me still was holding onto hope that this calm period may finally be the point in which the skin became clear.

I explained again that the doxy was just at the 2 month point where I had read people were seeing results, but on came the Accutane talk. Now you must understand for me, just taking antibiotics for acne was enough of a no no in my books, but it came to a point where the perfect diet had no influence on my acne (hormonal). The dermo told me that he would put me on a low dose of 20mg a day.

So this is where im at! I felt sort of odd leaving the dermo stopping my doxycycline treatment and going to accutane - but feeling more happier that I can begin adding some more healthy carbs into my diet. Less stressed.

Ill update you all on my accutane experience, If you have any questions feel free to jot it down and ill get back to you.

PS before I end this first post here is a list of things I found help me significantly:

Vicks Vapor Rub on bigger pimples, helped draws out the bad stuff and lasted on the face all day. Once you felt that the gunk is gone - crush 2 asprin with a few drops of water and use a earbud to mix and apply to the pimple that has been drawn out, leave on for 30 minutes when dust it off with a clean cloth or tissue, then apply polysporin or neosporin ointment to keep it very moist and let the antibiotics heal the lesion, may take a couple days, but on the last massive blinder I had it would of definitely scared without this polysporin application for 2 days.

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I did a little research on some foods to avoid while on accutane and a little research on common symptoms / side effects to prepare for.

So with that said, my research has found me:

Blistex Medex Lip Treatment (Chemist Warehouse $6) - which I am using at night time. It has a nice tingling feeling and really as made my lips perfectly moist and balanced .

Burts Bee's Honey Lip balm (Chemist Warehouse $5) - I am applying every so often during the day, I have tried Bonne Bell and Blistex chap stick and this is by far the best i've used. *I have one by my bed, one for work and one in the car, and one in pocket

Cetaphil Moisturising Lotion (Chemist Warehouse $12) - Use this one in the morning and will begin to reapply during the day if my skin becames more dry during the treatment.

Cetaphil Moisturising Cream (Chemist Warehouse $12) - Use this one a night time, It is more shiney on the skin and more effective than the lotion - but who wants to walk around like a bowling ball during the day.

Besides this, I learnt that accutane should be taken with fatty foods to increase the drugs effectiveness and absorbtion. Now alot of the posts I read about this fatty food x accutane, where from our American cousins - so alot of fast food and pretty unhealthy options were listed as the accutane side dish. So I have decided to fry a 'googy egg' in extra virgin olive oil and one of my nutty home made muesli bars. Let me know if you think that will suffice. Just as a note: there was a scientific study done in the states and they tested 100 or so people, half took accutane on empty stomachs, and half took accutane with a fatty meal - results showed that the fatty meal increased the drugs affectiveness by 50%. Now that quite substantial, but also consider having it on an empty stomach is dumb too. Would like to see the difference between a low fat diet and a high fat diet - would make more real life sense.

Since starting the accutane, If really been able to relax and take my mind of the constant diet and agony i placed upon myself before the new treatment. So already I feel more like my old self - which really makes me happy. I still feel a little odd about stopping the doxycycline (especially that I still have 8 months supply of tablets in my room) - I did read that tetracycline pills after a year since dispensing can become toxic. So I feel like its a bit of a waste just sitting here - as soon as I hear of someone going to a malaria country or something like that ill by giving them away like santa claus.

Anyway Ill repost every couple days and just keep some of you interested in low dosage accutane treatment informed.

PS: Also I was a big sweet potato eater, if you look at my food diary in first post, but I have cut that out due to it being one of the highest Vitamin A foods found on the planet hahaha. Vitamin A while on accutane is considered dangerous to the liver - so crossed it off, donated my sweet potato supply to my brother and onto something else

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Something to know if you're concerned about absorption. I saw you mentioned the studies about fatty foods. I eat a lot of small meals and not much fat, so I asked my derm for Epuris, which is called Absorica in the states. (Easy to google more info). It is a formulation of isotretinoin that absorbs as well as regular isotretinoin whether or not you have had a fatty meal. Many Accutane users on this forum are taking this. It is not any more well absorbed than generic isotretinoin taken with a fatty meal, but if you have trouble with fatty meals, or just want to ensure maximum absorption, it is a good option. For me, with insurance, it only cost $10 a month more than the generic, and just gives me a bit of peace of mind. Good luck!

p.s. Blistex medicated is my fave Accutane lip balm too. Put it on right after you wash your face for best results - it is not that effective once your lips are dry.

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Something to know if you're concerned about absorption. I saw you mentioned the studies about fatty foods. I eat a lot of small meals and not much fat, so I asked my derm for Epuris, which is called Absorica in the states. (Easy to google more info). It is a formulation of isotretinoin that absorbs as well as regular isotretinoin whether or not you have had a fatty meal. Many Accutane users on this forum are taking this. It is not any more well absorbed than generic isotretinoin taken with a fatty meal, but if you have trouble with fatty meals, or just want to ensure maximum absorption, it is a good option. For me, with insurance, it only cost $10 a month more than the generic, and just gives me a bit of peace of mind. Good luck!

p.s. Blistex medicated is my fave Accutane lip balm too. Put it on right after you wash your face for best results - it is not that effective once your lips are dry.

Wow Kim,

Thanks for the information on Epuris / Absorica - I think this is a very cool alternative for people who arent wanting to eat the extra fats through their day. And personally I would prefer the alternative and continue my lifestyle. But on another note, Im enjoying the extra bit of fat in my diet and the little piece and mind that its aiding my overall skin problem in the present state.

Thanks for the tip on the Blistex, I will definitely use it right after my showers and facial cleaning and hopefully keep them moist 24/7.

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Well to start off last night I finally went back out with friends after I hit a fairly low point before I started Accutane, due to a mother of all cyst on my chin.

It was so big and angry that it took me 2 weeks of constant care and maintenance to relieve its pressure and inflammation to a point where I could de-stress about it.

Now, my night was awesome - Australia Day was yesterday, and went out at night for a cruise down to St. Kilda beach with a few guys and girls - saw some penguins, listened to some live music on the beach and just laughed and smiled. I think I spent 90% of the night not even thinking about my acne (considering I would normally spend 90% of my time fixated on it - this was an absolute break through for me). It helped greatly though that I opened upto these friends the day before and told them that I was having skin problems and have been put onto accutane to help my situation. Turns out a couple of them had been on the drug at a younger age and we had a quick little back and forth about the dosages and all that jazz. Really helped me relax and I would strongly encourage any of you self concious about your skin do the same atleast with a best friend or if your comfortable bring it up on a group chat.

In terms of what I have noticed so far with the drug - my skin is become less oily, but at times its a little difficult to tell because im moisturised up with cetaphil. I have noticed that my chin is a little red. Not entirely sure whether thats from cleanser or from maybe a little sun acting with the accutane, hard to tell. But since day one I have only developed a tiny tiny pimple on my chin (not even worrying about it), and 2 cysts that were about to explode have become somewhat dormant and are just sitting on my chin in no mans land, probably trying to figure out where they're reinforcments have gone

So I am feeling really really positive and happy again! Even going out for dinner tonight with some old friends, although Im not going to tell everyone about accutane, just my car cruising buddies.. and you guys of course.

My message for the day really would be: if you stress about acne, your sure your diet is pretty clean and you have tried some of the safer acne treatments, please talk to your GP about low dosage options of accutane. Atleast to give you more insight into the drug and maybe if a time comes and you feel like your losing the acne battle give it a shot and gain some of your life back. Because for certain I feel a whole lot more at ease that there will be a finale to my story.

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I went in for my first blood test today, which was quick and easy - fingers crossed my results are all good to continue.

Ummm last night I got a regular pimple on my top left temple, which is very unusual, because I have only really had cysts for the last year, and I very rarely get any whiteheads on my forehead. So this is different. I applied some tea tree oil on it last night, and it currently has vicks on it today. Still feeling amazingly positive and Im sure we can all agree regular pimples are not even a concern.

Overall my face is beginning to feel tighter, from the skin slowly getting dryer, lips are always medicated and moisturised, so no issues here either.

It is summer here, and the temp is 40 degrees celsius (104 fahrenheit for you on imperial system) - so trying to avoid those harmful raise

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By the end of the day here is what I noticed. One of my cysts that was dormant became a little tender and inflammed, but suprising became a whitehead in a few hours.

My lips have started to become dryer and are now needing to be moisturised on the go to, and not just in the morning and at night. Nose had tiny micro-peeling on the tip i noticed before bed, which im guessing is the accutane starting to dry up certain areas of the face.

I did however walk in the sun yesterday for about 15 minutes without sunscreen and it was 35 degress celsius - I did take the shaded routes, but yeah I was a little careless.

Anyway Loving life!!! My positivity and happiness is still bursting since the beginning of Accutane

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I got my bloods back a couple days ago. And my Cholestrol was perfect, but my Liver function was on the 'higher side' according to my dermotologist.

He asked a few questions, like if i had a virus or something - and then said sometimes it can be that I had glandular fever and didnt realise from early in the year. I was freaking as you might understand.

I did get tonsilitus last May, which took a repeat of antibiotics before it seemed to go away. So maybe that is when I got Glandular and didnt realise - but I did get colds & flus a number of times throughout the year, so maybe its all linked.

The dermo told me to remain in the accutane treatment, and we will do a few tests in the coming weeks. In the meantime I picked up some Liver Detox supplements and will continue to as always treat my body with nourishing foods and plenty of water. Any suggestions and advice on this scenario would be greatly appreciated.

My acne around chin has flared up from mainly dormant cysts, which is quite annoying. But hoping like others they die down fast.

Lips are dry, but staying moist as much as possible

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Not much has really changed in the last two days. A few pimples have come and gone quiet fast, still redness from them - but seem less aggressive. That being said I big wopping cyst is developing on my chin at the moment. Gonna be a big one thats for sure. I have applied Pure Tea Tree Oil to it a couple times, to hopefully penetrate and kill some of the bacteria. Once it takes hold (which is will), Ill get onto the Vicks Vapor Rub for a few days to draw some of it out and then straight to antibiotic ointment to heal it up as soon as possible.

Gonna be a tough new few days, but ill survive

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2 weeks in now.. Skin has only micropeeled once on my nose, could have been from sun - my lips are slowly needing more maintenance as the days go on, still no issues those, besides getting dry and occasional little peel.

Ive noticed, that my skin is breaking out a little more, at the moment, I have one deep cyst on chin, one sore little whitehead just below it, a red pimple between eyebrows, and another on top of forehead. Besides this - a few cluster of black heads around nose nostrils and some unusual skin blemishes on cheeks. Sort of like red lumps that are elevated, but not itchy or sore. a few dormant cysts on chin too from old battles that arent doing anything, and one cyst that i extracted on chin is healing nicely.

I begun 2 days ago to use epsom salt in my routine, mix 1 tbs of epsom salts, with half a glass of warm water.. stir it up and pat it all over my face (for active acne or cysts once skin is wet with the epsom salt solution, I dip a wet fingure into the salt and apply it to the problem areas for extra strength). Leave it on for half an hour then wash off with cold water, pat dry and moisturize. So far I have done it 3 times and seems to be beneficial at controlling the break outs and has shrunk my big cyst, and made it not sore, but im used to extracting and its as if the bacteria and infection is just dieing on its own. So ill update with that later.

But I did read alot of positive reports on this treatment. got a 4.8 out of 5 from alot of skin sites.

Anyway hope your all well

ohhh and my scars and hyper-pigmentation seems to be going down too! so that's happy days for me

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skin yesterday was very very good.. no active pimples, and red marks were down..

couldnt really fault my upper face, was all quite clear and even toned.

Today however, an inflammed pimple / blind pimple appeared on chin. So I extracted it and iced it for half an hour, then I have a nice layer of

polysporin on it.

I had some spicy curry red meat dish last night from a restaurant and I noticed that today, all my red marks and scars are much brighter and noticeable.

So from a little research it appears that spicy foods increases blood flow and heat in your body, and blood tends to accumulate in the face and outer regions of your body (close to skin). So a little annoyed that my skin looks a little worse today.

Ive noticed more black heads appearing in the last 4 days, which I never had before. If anyone has any comments on this, whether its from the accutane or something - that would help.

I found out grill'd has a gluten free bun today, so going to go indulge in a burger tonight, which for me is a nice treat.

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Haven't updated in awhile. Im on Day 46 and while my cysts had virtually stopped for a good 2 weeks, I mad the mistake of starting to take fish oil capsules, which just absolutely p|ssed off my skin. and got 2 cysts big painful cysts and a few pimples within 3 days of taking 2 high strength fish oil capsules a day. Ill just say if you take fish oil capsules and you know for certain it hasnt caused you hormonal cysts, then continue. BUT if your thinking of starting fish oil capsules, be very wary and ready for a increase in acne.

Besides this - my lips are still dry, and the corner of my lip did split yesterday which Im applying my good old faithful polysporin on (cannot speak highly enough of polysporin.

The corner of my earlobe split a little too, because of ripping t-shirts off and of course the dry skin.

One other vital thing I must say, I was using cetaphil moisturizing cream (the one in the tub) and after a month I realized it was this and not accutane that caused this red rash of somewhat skin coloured pimples and red marks on my cheeks and forhead. Now I am not saying cetaphil is bad, quite the opposite - cetaphils cleanser and lotions have worked wonders for majority of people, but there are a number of us I have found that have problems with their moisturizer. Maybe its a chemical in it - or more than likely its the 'tub' design, potentially harboring bacteria.

Hope your all well

PS got second round of blood work back after my last was borderline. Anyway im all good! everything came back in 'pristine' condition ;P

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Hey guys this update is a long time coming. I always find it frustrating when people drop off their blogs or dont finish telling their stories. Unfortunately I work full time, go to night school in digital marketing, play basketball 3 nights a week - so as you can imagine my acne.org efforts dropped off.

The Treatment so far (in a nutshell):

My experience on accutane like most is a roller-coaster of adjustment - It took me months to really come to grips with the change in how I manage my 'new' skin dynamics. Starting on a low dose of 20mg was a great beginning, but realistically even if you have mild - moderate acne, or just a few big cysts a fortnight - realistically you would want to bump it up after your first couple months to 40mg. The 40mg a day dose for me, is when i started really seeing this change (for better and worse). Rather than spending nearly a year on such a low dose, my opinion would be to bump it up to get off the constant isotretinoin faster.

In the treatment, I have gone through atleast 8 different brands and types of moisturizers and cleansers. I started to get very red and flushed cheeks, along with skin coloured bumps on my forehead and cheeks where I never really broke out before. My advice in this case is your skin is dying of thirst and the dryness of skin, starts to encourage your body to produce more sebum (but at the end of the day you wont be producing sebum much longer). But I used cetaphil cleanser, even though its gentle it still had something in it my skin didnt like, then the next major skin regime i moved to was Ego QV's range and that gave my huge non-itchy red bumps along my chin.

Anyway after all that, Now all I do is.. in the AM - wash face with warm water and rub face with finger tips in circular motions to clear away and deadskin cells, then rinse with cold water to close pores (or atleast cool face off), followed by one pump of cerave Normal to Dry skin moisturiser. Thats it! and in the PM the exact same thing!!

Simplicity is the best, you tend not to over do products or worry about applications. However I understand though, if your still in the Initial breakout stage or still getting cysts, you may wont to spot treat problematic areas. Which I say go ahead and just use not to drying products on it.

My arsenal of spot treatments are : 100% Pure tea tree oil (for oncoming big deep cysts) - Vicks Vapor Rub (to try bring a bump or cyst to a head - vaseline (for extreme dry patches on skin - which i use straight after i let moisturiser sink in) - Polysporin (if one of the white heads pops this will heal it up and stop infection - also it will help healing and prevent scaring if applied twice a day after popping) - uncoated aspirin spot treatment (google this - very good for reducing redness and also for recently popped pimples to clear infection out)

Anyway guys. I have 3 months left of my 7 month treatment! And everything on my face is CYST FREE!! only little random dry bumps here and there and common redness around cheeks and chin like most others. Highly recommend the treatment - my life was in a complete mess before I started this course and I wish you all the best of luck in starting or continuing your accutane adventures.